fiction, poetry, collaborative practice

Art

This is the first of a fortnightly column in the newspaper Afternoon Despatch & Courier. I will be posting reviews of art shows in town –

The Smell Of Pepper And Jasmine

Friday, April 06, 2018

Vinod Balak-Last Supper

Siji Krishnan – Snake crosses the Landscape

Rateesh T-The Smell of Pepper and Jasmine

(photo credit: Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke)

Nine painters from Kerala come together to showcase the shared locality of their artistic practice and highlight their own individual preoccupations and styles. Anjali Purohit visits the exhibition

In the frantic pace of metropolitan living there is often a wish to escape to a place that will offer some respite from the blinding reflections in the glass-chrome-concrete monolithic ideal that our city is racing towards. That is when thoughts turn to the cool, green, salubrious surrounds of, where else but, the abundance of god’s own country. Till such time as one can plan a trip there-wards, however, we have Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke that brings the lush abundance of that state to Colaba in the form of the show Nine Painters from Kerala.

These are nine painters who have had a longstanding association with the gallery but are being shown together for the first time with the belief that the exhibition will evidence the shared locality of their artistic practice as well as highlight their own individual preoccupations and styles. The artists, Abul Hisham, Aji V.N., Arun K.S., C.K. Rajan, Jyothi Basu, Ratheesh T., Siji Krishnan, Sosa Joseph and Vinod Balak hold dialogue with each other through their work which also demonstrates their rootedness in the land from which these works arise—the culture and milieu of Kerala. The paintings on display begin to offer, by the way of complement and contrast, a vivid montage of the land in which they are grounded but then further take off from this point to express their own preoccupations with themes such as social structures, self, family, untamed nature, alienation, desire, death, urban realities and politics.

Rateesh T offer us a large work, The Smell of Pepper and Jasmine, which is a heady and immediately visceral one exuding as it does not only the smell of jasmine and pepper but also of the wet earth, of desire and fecundity. It is, I think, one of the strongest images that stays in one’s consciousness for quite a while.

Vinod Balak is equally powerful with his canvas, Last Supper, where he makes an arresting statement that depicts a ‘last supper’ with local political figures but which could well be situated in any other space in the nation. The figures are typically ranged around a table that holds empty plates and an enormous, ripe jackfruit just waiting to be cut opened and consumed.

Sosa Joseph’s art engages with the complex cultural mix of people in society, specifically her own native Mattancherry perhaps suggesting the intricate warp and weft of social relations that ought not to be rent.

Siji Krishnan presents a fascinating landscape depicted in washes of water colour on rice paper reminiscent of ancient parchment rolls. The colours in Snake Crosses the Landscape are soft, soothing, pastel. Here, an almost perfect and subtle landscape of rice fields peacefully coexisting with each other, of waterways and gently undulating mountains is disrupted by a snake crossing across almost end to end from the right to the left in the foreground. Dangerous or benign? As always with fine works of art, it is best this is left as an open question for the viewer to engage with.

This exhibition is surely one that must not be missed since these individual painters might have solo shows in the future, but the pleasure in ‘listening’ to these paintings hold a conversation with each other about a love that is shared for their land, is an opportunity that might not come again anytime soon.

Do also immerse yourself in the current exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art (across the road from the CSMVS Museum) where Art & Soul Gallery has curated an important retrospective exhibition of over 150 works by the legendary artist, Manu Parekh. Taken together, this show offers a comprehensive viewing of his over sixty years of extensive artistic practice and the depth, diversity and significance of his art. This exhibition will run till the 15th of April.

Mumbai Moulting: Erasures and a Palimpsest was conceived and curated by Anjali Purohit as a conversation between Poetry, Music and Art. The conversation was about a Mumbai that is eager to shed its skin. A city in a hurry to become Shanghai and in this process carrying out many erasures. But these erasures always leave behind a palimpsest, a memory, a ghost of those erasures.

And yet, the very ethos and vibrancy of the city has generated so much reaction from poets and musicians for generations in their attempt to capture and make permanent aspects of the city that they wanted to preserve. This event was an attempt to renegotiate those poetic and musical creations and counterpoise them with the writings, music and art of artists and poets of the present. The urgency and irony of Erasures was highlighted by the fact that the art installations and cultural intervention of these voices was taking place in a factory warehouse earmarked for demolition immediately after the Vikhroli Skin pop up event concluded.
It included paintings by Anjali Purohit from her show ‘Erasures-A Partial Account’ presented as an intervention that added a voice to that of the singers and the poets.

The songs presented by Amarendra Dhaneshwar at the culture lab were –

The first song, too well known to need an introduction – yeh hai Bombay meri Jaan was from the film CID, written by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Mumbaichi Lavni – Lavni is a form of Marathi folk music. It has a distinct tempo and is usually about beauty and love. Here Amarendra Dhaneshwar presented a Lavni called Mumbaichi Lavni that is about the Shahir’s love for Mumbai. Written by Patthe Bapurao in the 1800s it describes Bombay right from the docks to the stations and markets, the Kala Ghoda and the Khada Parsi down then finally to the chawl that will protect, sustain and shelter the migrant worker. Patthe Bapurao came from a high caste Brahmin family but rebelled against tradition to take up what was then considered the lowly profession of a folk singer and writer. He married a dancer and was severely ostracized by his community yet persevered to become a very popular shahir.

Majhi Maina: is a folk song written by Annabhau Sathe who is known as the people’s poet of Maharashtra. It speaks, amongst other things about migration, loneliness and the bonds that still remain even though one is swept away by the pace and industry of this city.

Girnichi Lavni: is by the poet Narayan Surve. It is a love song to the textile mill. The poet describes the love that the mill worker feels for this mother – the siren at dawn that sings the bhoopali, the wheels, the thread, the bobbins moving ceaselessly, joining threads that break, weaving strands together – the fascinatingly beautiful cloth that emerge resplendent in so many colours and textures – silks and malmals, saris and shelas. After creating all this splendour, when we return home – there’s no money for fuel to light the stove, now what will we cook. Or should we just put a stitch in our belly to quell its call, just like we stitch (tie) together the strands on the loom?

Chino Arab Hamara – is written by Sahir Ludiyanvi from the film Phir Subah Hogi.

Seene mein Jalan – from the film Gaman is written by the poet Sharyar who chose to speak about the pain of the deprived, the man on the street – Why is there a fire in his heart, a storm in his eyes – why is every person in this city so troubled.